This invention relates in general to harvesting machinery and in particular relates to the harvesting of crops which are characterized in having stalks which carry seed pods that tend to easily shatter and release seeds when moved or jarred.
Crops which have fragile seed pods of the type described include the sesame plant. Sesame seeds are of increasing importance as a source of protein and other food values in view of the population explosion, the relative decrease in food supply, and the resulting increase in world malnutrition and starvation problems.
Sesame plants when ready for harvest comprise stalks which are six to eight feet in height with many seed-bearing pods attached to the stalk of each plant. It is a characteristic of these sesame plants that the ripe pods carrying the seeds are fragile such that the pods have a tendency to shatter and open when moved or jarred so that the seeds from each pod fall to the ground and are lost.
Heretofore the foregoing problem of pod shattering has precluded practical mechanical harvesting of sesame crops. When conventional grain harvesters having a reel and sickle are utilized a loss of from 70 to 90% of the seed is encountered. As a result it has been necessary to manually harvest these crops. The resulting high labor content in the harvesting operation has resulted in low yields and high crop costs. Thus the need has been recognized for apparatus which will harvest crops such as sesame plants without substantial product loss. With such mechanical harvesting apparatus the sesame crop could be more fully employed in solving the world food problem.